Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter
Saint International's Female Fashion Face of the Caribbean, Kareen Taylor. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
WHEN KAREEN Taylor won Saint International's Female Fashion Face of the Caribbean earlier this month, she said it was something that she had longed for but still couldn't believe had actually happened.
Taylor, 17, grew up in Fletcher's Land, Kingston, in a Christian household. She says irrespective of this, her mother supported her decision to model, but an obstacle came in the most unlikely of places.
She feared the acerbic tongue of Deiwight Peters, CEO of Saint.
"My cousin Simone was always influencing me to go out and enter the Faces of Summer competition, but I was always afraid because I know how Deiwight stay, but I went and faced him," she said.
CHILDHOOD DREAM
Taylor survived Peters and went on to place in the top five. "After that, Deiwight was like 'there will be another competition so you should gear up for it'," she said. As it happens, Taylor entered that competition - the Fashion Face of the Caribbean - and won.
Kareen says this has been a fulfilment of her childhood dream. "From I was a child, every day when I get the chance I was always trying on high-heeled shoes and dress and things like that," she said.
Now that Kareen has the win under her belt, she is working on landing a modelling contract.
"I will be going international, but I want to be one of the best black models to come from Jamaica. People are always saying that we are the worst country, but I want people to say 'that's the girl who won Fashion Face three years ago'. I want people to be really proud of me," she said.
She also says some of the campaigns she will be working towards include Gucci, Prada, Guess and Ralph Lauren.
